Swami indicates
the significant role of His Teaching to the students - seekers
of truth and to all others who are interested in their
spiritual development. Let His words be as a preface to the
subsequent Swami's lesson for devotees and followers "Swami
teaches...".

All
of you have great love and adore Swami but that love and
adoration are of no use if you ignore the teachings of Swami.
Even if you do not adore, if you believe in the truth of the
word and enforce it in your daily life, Swami's grace will
always be with you in your life. It is no use if you simply
utter the name of the Lord and do not follow the good things
that go with the Lord. It is just like uttering the name of
penicillin when you are running a high temperature. Only when
you take in the penicillin will the temperature come down.
When you are hungry, the hunger cannot be satisfied by
uttering words like potato and Chapati. If you eat them, it
will be satisfied. It is no use if you only read or listen.
You must try to remember the teachings, put them into practice
and judge for yourself how far you have acted according to the
word.

Swami teaches...
(19 January 2005)

Vedic
Truth of the Objective World

Logic and intellectual
investigation can give only partial accounts of the Truth.
Everything in creation has many phases and many angles.
Reason can observe only from one angle; it can see only
one phase. The intellect that has been purified and
clarified through the activities (Karma) laid down in the
Vedas can succeed in observing both phases. Without
undergoing the process of purification and clarification,
Reason can work only within the bounds of the materialist
world. So, the conclusions that it presents before us can
only be partially true. But, the intellect subjected to
the processes of cleansing and sharpening in the Vedic way
can serve us by presenting a picture of the full Truth of
the objective world.

The Universe is the Macrocosmos;
the Individual Being is the Microcosmos. But, the basic
Truth of both is One, the same. That One is independent
and unrelated to any other fact or thing. When That is
realised in this manner, it can be called Brahmam. When it
enters the awareness as the Universe, it is referred to as
Parabrahmam. The basic truth of the Universe is Atma. The
basic Truth of the Individual is also Atma. All that
appear as different from Atma are of the region of
'delusion' or Mithya. The last implies a condition which,
until inquiry, appears real but, on inquiry, is known to
be unreal. It is only an appearance, this universe and its
supposed basis - an appearance caused by Ignorance or
Maya. The power that deludes us into believing that the
created cosmos is true and real is also an emanation from
the Atma. When this power operates and the Atma is clothed
with it, it is referred to as Paramatma.

The Lord is the eternal Witness,
the Power that presides over every act. Looked at from this
point of view, one has to realise and declare that the Lord
and the Individual are bound inextricably together. In the
absence of living beings, there can be no Lord. So, the
Lord, it can be said, manifested the Universe, in order to
provide living beings with fields of activity and in order
to grant them the consequences of those actions.

The Universe is for each Jivi its
own mental picture and nothing else, fundamentally. So,
unless one unravels the mind and its processes, the Brahma
principle is difficult to understand. Those who have not
understood the real nature of the sky will mistake it as a
dome of smoke and dust; so too, the Atma is mistaken,
through non-awareness of reality, to be enclosed in and
embodied as intellect or Buddhi, to be involved in activity,
to be caught up in the twin bonds of joy and sorrow, and to
be embroiled in happiness and misery and also in bondage and
liberation.

From the angle of change (Vyavahara),
the higher Truth will naturally appear as different, though
they are inextricably inter-related. One space (air) exists
in houses, lakes, hills etc. - which are shapes and forms,
with distinct names attached to them and different modes of
behaviour and use. Individual beings (jivas) too have
different names and forms, peculiarities and specialities of
use and behaviour; but, like the string that holds the
beads, passing in and through each and holding them
together, the Super-Consciousness in all individuals is One.

What is it that, if known,
everything else can be known? When the Atma is known,
declare the scriptures (Sruthi), everything can be known.
The Jagath (the Cosmos) is only relatively real; it is
partly false explained the sacred Sruthi texts and allied
sacred literature like Smrithis, Ithihasas and Puranas.

"Why worry how the Cosmos was born
or when it will die? Worry rather about yourself." That is
the lesson emphasised by the scriptures. "Know Thyself."
Once you know yourself, everything else will be
automatically clear.

The Jivi cannot avoid inquiring
into the origins of the Universe which he encounters. The
Sruthi answers such inquiry in words that give temporary
relief. The Universe originates through illusion or Maya.
Just as the dream has no order or law, the Universe also is
too full of mystery and Maya.

There is another problem that
generally worries a human being, how did this ignorance
happen? The solution has been provided by the
sage-preceptor, Vasishta, to Sri Ramachandra. "Rama!" he
said, "Rather than entangling yourselves in the inquiry
regarding how Ignorance entered Man, I would exhort you to
be engaged in efforts to get rid of it".

This lesson is directed not only
to Rama but to all mankind. It helps all who do not possess
the realisation of the Truth behind the objective world.
Ajnana or Ignorance is the name given to ignoring what is
one's own inner experience - that the universe is an
ever-changing phenomenon. (Reet's compilation from:
Sathya Sai Baba. Sathya Sai Vahini "The Primal Purpose," pp.
105-110).

Swami
teaches... (18 January 2005)

How to Be
in Accord with a Symphony of Joy and Sorrow?

All human beings born in this Kali Yuga
are getting confused because they do not know how to
differentiate between good and evil, between sin and virtue
and between joy and sorrow. The sense of discrimination is
being put to a severe test in us because what seems to be good
at one time, seems to be bad at another time; what seems to be
desirable at one time, seems undesirable at another, what
seems to be conducive to our health at one time, seems to be
dangerous to our health at another and so on.

From the same heart we find two
emotions, one anger and the other mercy. Some people argue
that man is born just for the gratification of his senses.
Some people think that they should amass food and wealth for
the sake of joy and happiness only. A human being is not born
to go in quest of food but to go in quest of the Atma.

We should develop intelligence,
because our intelligence enables us to distinguish good from
bad through the process of constant thought and
discrimination. The discourses of elders and the messages of
great books point out the great principle of finding unity in
diversity. But this principle remains only theoretical if it
is not implemented in our daily lives. If we want to recognise
unity in diversity, we must first know the meaning of these
words. We may glibly say that the elimination of sorrow and
acquisition of joy is the simple path which leads to spiritual
illumination.

However, life is a symphony of joy
and sorrow, a mixture of pleasure and pain. It is not possible
for us to have joy without sorrow or sorrow without joy.
Therefore, one must cultivate the attitude of equanimity
towards joy and sorrow.

Human life is made up of several
stages. Birth, growth, ageing, getting debilitated and death
are the various stages of the changing body. In this field
which is full of change, the principle which remains unchanged
is divinity. Why do we nourish and protect the body which is
the Kshetra? Kshetragna (Paramatma) is residing in this
body. These are referred to in the Gita as 'Kshetra' and 'Kshetragna'.
'Kshetra' is the body which is the field and the 'Kshetragna'
is Paramatma.

It is said that this body is your
temple and within this body God, the eternal principle dwells.
But today this body has unfortunately degenerated into a
dwelling place of the devil. You must understand the
difference between the dwelling place of God and the dwelling
place of the devil. If you do not kindle the flame of pure
thoughts in the temple of your body, then bats will befoul it
and it will be densely dark. Kindle the flame of love, the
flame of knowledge and the flame of devotion in your hearts.

Always avoid bad friends and fill
your minds with noble and elevating things. When you get up
in the morning, sit on your bed and think of the Lord. As
soon as you get up, throw your troubles and burdens at the
feet of the Lord and pray to Him to guide you through life and
give you only good thoughts and noble ideas which always serve
as uplifting factors in life. When you go back to bed at
night, imagine that to be a state of death. Tell yourself that
during the day, you have acted according to the Lord's orders.
Ask for forgiveness if there is anything wrong and ask to be
led on the path of righteousness. If you begin and end your
day with such prayers, it will help you reach higher attitudes
of living.

When you take food, all the evils
are eliminated if you offer the first morsel to God. The food
then becomes Prasad of the Lord bestowed on man. It may not be
possible to insist that the vessel be pure, that the man who
cooks the food be pure and that the food be pure, but if you
offer the first morsel to God, it becomes utterly pure.

Always try to help those who are in
distress, those who are suffering and the poor. Once upon a
time, there lived in Tamil Nadu a poet and holy man who used
to sit on a veranda in his house in front of the Lord's
picture and chant beautiful songs. One day, it was raining
heavily and he sought shelter in another little veranda in the
village. One other man came and asked him if he could also
take shelter there. The Bhakta said he could. He said, "There
was place only for me to stretch out, but now that you are
here we will sit up." Later, another man came and asked for
shelter. The Bhakta consented saying, "There was place for the
two of us to sit. Now that you also have come, let us all
stand." He thus taught the principle of helping one another
and not sending anyone away who needed help. Such is a tiny
example how to practice in daily life the great principle of
finding Iswara (i. e. God, Paraatma, Atma) in every creature. (Reet's
compilation from: Divine Discourse of Bhagawan Sathya Sai Baba
"Pleasure and Pain" during the Summer Course in Spirituality
and Indian Culture. May 1972, Brindavan).

Swami
teaches... (17 January 2005)

Wisdom and
Knowledge - Bridge to Happiness

All
humanity long for and ceaselessly search happiness without
knowing exactly the essential component of it.

Before seeking happiness through
the senses, the mind and the intellect, one has to examine
whether he/she is a bundle of sense, or a mind playing with
them or an intellect that rationalises the mental cravings.
The body is the gross body; the water which it is intended
to contain and carry is the subtle body; the reality of the
potter who shaped it and willed it is the causal body. The
three bodies which each has are called respectively Sthuula
(gross), Suukshma (subtle) and Karana (causal).

There are three stages of wisdom
correlated to those three bodies: Jnaana, Sujnaana and
Vijnaana. Knowledge that is gained by the analysis of the
objective world and the similarities of the behaviour of its
components is Jnaana. When this knowledge is further studied
and practised to subserve the best interests of the individual
society, it becomes Sujnaana, or beneficial wisdom. The
intentions and urges that arise from the purified
consciousness saturated with the divine qualities emanating
from the sage is Vijnaana, the highest wisdom. It is to be
noted that the word Vijnaana is often misused to indicate mere
Jnaana, or coordinated information, analysed information about
sense perceptions arising out of contact with the material
objective world.

In fact, there is a great difference
between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge is something which is
related only to the head. It is possible that by conducting
some enquiries and by working with some special types of
machines, one can reach an important position in the matter of
acquiring knowledge. One has to say that to some extent, this
is simply book knowledge. Just by such an acquisition, our
capacity to comprehend truth is not going to improve. What we
call knowledge is the essence of all sciences. Wisdom, on the
other hand, is something which we acquire as a result of
practice. Knowledge acquired from books differs very much from
knowledge acquired from experience. Wisdom is acquired from
experience.

In order that you may clearly
understand these things, let us take the case of a very
large ocean. If we take water from that ocean and put it
in our mouth, we will get the taste of its being very
salty. If the same salt water is converted into water
vapour by the heat of the sun, constituted into clouds and
then comes back as rain on the earth, that water will be
very sweet. This can be compared to wisdom born out of
experience. It is only when we take the matter that is
contained in the ocean of books or scriptures and use our
Buddhi, the intelligence, which can be compared to the
sun's heat and convert it into clouds, which can be
compared to Prema or love, then only, like the water that
results after the rain, our knowledge will be sweet and
this will be called wisdom. In every effort and in every
thing that we do, cleansing or purification is very
essential.

In no human endeavour can we
bypass this process of purification. Once the intelligence
is purified and dedicated to spiritual effort, there
should be no slipping back whatever the obstacle, whatever
the temptation.

If you really want to assess the
human beings and assign values, you have to see and assess
how these different persons are behaving, what their
character is, what changes have come about in them after
birth and what are the paths which they are following. If
therefore, one wishes to change him/herself, to turn to
the spiritual path, there is a need to take great care
about the way in which one behaves.

Intelligence, intellect,
intuition - these three govern the thoughts and actions of
human being. One leads to another. (These three channel a human being
to obtain skills through knowledge and to transform
the obtained knowledge to wisdom).

The whole duty of humans is to
engage in good acts with the gross body, scatter good thoughts
and good influences to other human beings and environment with
his/her subtle body, and earn self-realisation and bliss
through his/her causal body. (Reet's compilation from:
Divine Discourse of Bhagawan Sathya Sai Baba "The Three
Bodies" 23 November 1972, Prashanthi Nilayam and The Divine
Discourse Bhagawan Sathya Sai Baba, "Vedic Truths belong to
the Whole World," Summer Course in Spirituality and Indian
Culture, May 1972, Brindavan).

PS:

My thoughts,
not exactly concern to Swami's text in brackets.

Swami teaches... (16 January
2005)

Four Purusharthas (Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha)

The Makara month is holier than all the
other months. All auspicious ceremonies and activities are
embarked upon only from this month. Now it is the beginning of
Makaramaasa (when the Sun enters the constellation Capricorn).
The entry of the Sun into Makararasi (Capricorn) heralds the
beginning of a great change from this day. That time is
merged by Nature what wears the garb of Supreme Peace on the
holy day of Sankaranthi what means San (coming together),
Kranthi (a big change). Kranthi also means knowledge of the
past, present and future. It can apply to God, who presides
over time, space and causation.

Sankaranthi marks the entry into a
Divine phase. It signifies the attempt to turn man's mind
towards God.

It is a time, appointed by
Nature to contemplate and experience the purposes of human
life.

Four Purusharthas (Dharma, Artha,
Kama and Moksha) are regarded in common parlance as the
purposes of human life. They are given a worldly meaning.

The real meaning of Purusharthas is
to make use of the time and the circumstances as they arise
for making one's life meaningful and sublime. We have to
effect a remarkable spiritual transformation in the world
today. Only then the observance of Makara Sankaranthi has a
meaning. External changes with no change in one's outlook and
attitude will not signify Kranthi
(radical change). When the most of humanity bring about a
great spiritual transformation, then there will be real
peace.

The word Purusha does not signify
the masculine gender as is commonly assumed. It refers to the
Atma, the Supreme Consciousness, which has no gender and which
is immanent in all beings. Of the two terms Purusha and
Prakriti, the latter represents the gross element in Nature.
It refers also to the body. Purusha is the Consciousness, the
Indweller in the body. The two are interdependent. The sastras
have declared that the body is jada (gross) and the Atma is
chaitanya (consciousness) and that the body is feminine. Every
being can be considered as made up of both elements and
therefore everyone irrespective of sex, is entitled to pursue
the Purusharthas.

Of the four Purusharthas the first,
Dharma, is regarded in common usage as referring to actions
like charity and perform other good deeds. But these relate
only to external actions. The true Dharma of every human being
is to make every endeavour to realise the Divine. The process
by which this consummation can be reached constitutes Dharma
what should lead to Self-realisation.

The second - Artha does not mean, as
commonly understood, the accumulation of property and wealth.
They may well become anartha (calamitous). They are not
lasting. The acquisition of
such wealth cannot be considered as Purushartha. The real
wealth that the man should acquire is the wisdom that is
related to the Divine.

The third - Kama is generally
associated with worldly desires and sensual pleasures. But,
when it is considered as the Purushartha - as one of the
purposes of life - it relates to the yearning for God and not
to mundane desires.

The fourth - Moksha is generally
understood as referring to the means by which one reaches God
or Heaven. But one can be in Heaven only for the period earned
by one's meritorious deeds and at the end will have to be
reborn again. But Moksha in the true sense refers to a state
in which nothing is lacking and there is no incoming or going
out. It is a state without name or form. It is not a specific
place to go to. It is the attainment of unity with the Diane.

For every human being, the first
task, among the four Purusharthas, must be to determine what
is permanent and what is transient and seek the Eternal
Madhava. The second objective is the acquisition of the Diane
Wisdom as the real wealth. The third is to develop faith in
God and
yearn for realisation of mergence in God. The fourth is Moksha,
the state of Self-realisation in which there is no change and
there is no movement.

However, a human being is not
allowed to know his glory, by the six thieves who hide in his
mind - lusty desire, anger, greed, undue attachment, pride and
hatred. So long as these beasts occupy the heart, man cannot
escape being a beast. There are also eight waves of pride
which obstruct his attempt to know himself - the pride of
caste, of physical strength, of scholarship, of youth, of
wealth, of personal charm, of overlordship and one's spiritual
attainments.

Being a human, what does one aspire
for? Absence of grief and presence of Ananda and freedom to
follow one's will. Grief and joy are like night and day,
inevitable phases of life. Freedom for one's will can cause
disaster to oneself and others. A human being must know that
he/she is the Atma; that knowledge is all that is needed for
one's Ananda.

The basic principles of the human
nature are Truth, Righteousness, Peace, Non-violence and
Prema For the first four, the last value, Prema (Love), is
the life-giving spring. When action is saturated with Truth,
it becomes Dharma (Righteousness). When all actions are
right, Peace reigns and one's mind is free from traces of
violence. Love is the sustenance for all the four. These
values are the goals, the bases, the roots, the keys of
human progress. They can be achieved most quickly by Prema.

Love as thought is Sathya,

as action it is Dharma,

as feeling it is Shanthi and

as understanding it is Ahimsa
(Non-violence).

These authentic human values cannot
be learnt from books or from lessons given by teachers or
gifted by elders. They can be acquired only by experience and
example.

In addition, it is good to know
that in arithmetic three minus one is two. But in the
mathematics of the spirit, three minus one is one. God
mirrored in Nature is seen as the Image, Human Being. There
are three entities here, but remove the mirror and what
remains is not two but only One, the One God.

Nothing is uncaused in the universe. Every being, object,
incident has been caused by the primal cause and its direction
or guidance. The Shaasthras (spiritual sciences) yearn for the
discovery of that unseen principle.

Life is as a dream. In the dream,
you experience joy and grief; but when you realise that both
joy and grief are unreal, when you awake into the
consciousness of the Aathma, you will no more have the thrill
of joy or the despondency of pain.

Human being alone has the ability
to understand the phenomenal world around him. He can grasp
the ways and waywardness of the world; he can delve into its
evolution and involution, its contraction and expansion.
Therefore, he has to give it only a relative value, and follow
as his only goal, the search for the Aathma and the attainment
of the Aathma. Boundless spiritual potential is in every being
and expresses itself as Jnaana (supreme wisdom).

A person is not just the body, with
its limbs and other mechanisms. The Aathma is the divine
person. The soul is the personality. And the person realises
Aanandha only when the Aathma is cognised. This achievement
cannot be won through riches or authority of office,
scholarship or status, fame or force. The mind is the
architect of your progress or decline. For the fool, the mind
is a formidable dinosaur; for the intelligent, the mind is an
angle. The Vedhas teach how to purify the mind and render it a
useful tool.

The Pandiths and scholars must teach
the people the principle of the Aathma, and themselves shine
as inspirers through their own practice of what they teach.
Immersed in Sath-Chith-Aanandha (sheer bliss in the total
awareness of the supreme reality) themselves, they must
communicate that joy and that wisdom to others. Plant in every
heart the seed of truth.

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa,
Jayadeva, Gouranga, Tukaram, Tulsidas, Ramdas, Kabirdas,
Saradadevi, Meera, Sakkubai, Mallamma - those holy persons
spoke what they had in their hearts, exactly as they felt or
experienced. They had not mastered the objective commentaries
and elucidations of the many sciences and scriptural texts;
yet, this day they are adored by followers of all faiths,
adherents of all creeds and natives of all lands. The reason
obviously lies in their unshaken faith in the Atma, won
through the purification of the mind. Vidya alone conferred on
them the purity and the clarity.

When the mind is thus polished
clean, the effect will be, as the poet says, "A Mahatma has as
his sign, one thought, one word, one deed." These three being
in harmony is the best proof of the worth of man.

This unique worth is now being
disclaimed by man through his own volition. For, he is unaware
of Atma Vidya. Human being has thrown his "humanness" into the
crater of cruelty forgetting his best interests, under the
influence of hatred, envy, conceit and power. He has cast
aside the expanse of his culture. As a result peace has flown
from the heart of man, from the fold of society and the
boundaries of nations.

The truth that spiritual, moral
and behavioral values are the very crown of human
achievement however, today it is not recognised in most
cases. Often educated scholars speeches from bookish
platforms where practice is paralysed. It is easy to
advise in a million ways without even one thing has
practiced.

Every event in the
world has a special cause that brought it about, namely,
knowledge. Of course, without things to be known, there can be
no knowledge. Knowledge itself is of two kinds: patent and
latent, direct and indirect, Pratyaksha and Paroksha, real and
apparent. Pratyaksha or A-paroksha, (the patent knowledge) is
gained through the ear and other sense organs and through the
words of others. The paroksha (for the latent), the real
knowledge, knows no plurality; it analyses and understands the
attractions and objects which haunt the mind. It purifies the
mind and widens the vision of the heart.

Vidya instructs you to remember
yourself first. After transforming yourself, try to reform
others; that is the advice offered by Vidya. The delusive
attachment to the objective world can be uprooted by means of
selfless service rendered as worship to the Lord. Devotion to
the Motherland, Love of the Motherland, these are to be
reckoned as far less than love and devotion towards all
humanity.

You have to develop the humility to
believe that you have much good to learn from others. Your
enthusiasm, your strong ambition, your resolution, your
capacity to work, your store of knowledge, your wisdom - these
have to be related to all others and not utilised for you
alone.

The motion of the sun, the moon and
the earth takes place regularly and without faltering. The
creation of this infinite world, the creation of the sun and
the moon who are moving so regularly or the generation of a
steady heat in a human body, the functioning of the lungs
are such mysteries that unquestionably there is a divine
hand of creation behind them. The divine strength or the
divine aspect of all these things is Brahman.

Human beings have been able to go
up to a certain point, using their intelligence. However,
trying to reach to more proper explanations they meet a
limitation and that they cannot go beyond that point. We
must make an attempt to understand and search for the truth
and put it into practice. Even today what the scientists
have really learnt is a very small fraction of what there is
to learn but the pride they have accumulated after having
learnt such a small fraction is out of all proportion. The
decisions which the scientists are arriving at as a result
of their work are being altered in a short time by the
scientists themselves. They are criticising and changing the
very same conclusions which they arrive at and there is no
scientist who can say that this is the final stage and there
is no more to be done. Ultimately they reach a stage where
by their inner vision they are able to say that this is the
truth and signify the aspect of the Atma and realise what
ultimate truth is.

The scientists of today are
devoted to a machine philosophy. Their knowledge is
something which is accumulated from studies of the external.
It is not something which is generated from within as an
essence. Those who are devoted to machines and those who
stuff information from outside into one's self are
scientists and those who develop the inner strength and who
are devoted to the strength of Mantra are saints. This
difference between a scientist and a saint is very deep and
is one of essence. It is very difficult to understand this
basic difference. That which is the basis for everything and
that which constitutes the power and the strength which is
at the base of all this creation is Brahman.

Do not cultivate the habit of
building castles in the air and get tired by thinking that
you will do this and that, you will achieve this and that.
The fruits that you get will correspond to whatever seeds
you plant. If the seed is one thing and if you have the
ambition to get a different fruit, how is it possible? You
may be very clever but all the cleverness is of no avail if
you are not giving up your mean qualities. Whatever good or
bad you may have done, the aspect of Brahman is not going to
break the good and bad into separate parts. Everyone wears
round his neck the invisible garland what consists of all
the good and all the bad that you have done.

Brahman is present in your own
heart and is functioning as a witnessing consciousness all
through. Whether any one sees it or not, the aspect of
Brahman which has been described as one which has thousands
of heads and thousands of eyes is always watching you and
the good and bad that you do. Without recognising and
understanding this basic truth that Brahman is always with
you, you spend a great deal of time and energy thinking that
God is somewhere and that you should find Him elsewhere and
outside of your heart.

We think that our mind, thought
and body have been surrendered to the Lord. This in fact is
not true and is in the direction of deceiving the Lord. Your
mind is not under your own control and under such
circumstances how can you hold it and give it to the Lord.
You have no control over your own body. This word surrender
conveys that there is someone who gives and someone who
accepts and that you are surrendering to someone. There is a
feeling of duality implied in this word surrender. A man
with a dual mind is half-blind. In this manner, while he
remains with this dual thought, how can he recognise the
non-dual aspect.

The true meaning of surrender is
the recognition of the fact that in everyone and everywhere
God is present. The recognition of the presence of God in
all Jivas is the true meaning of the word surrender. We
should perform all the tasks enjoined upon us as our duty
and it is not right to neglect our duty and sit idly and say
that you have surrendered everything to the Lord. If you
have the feeling that all the work that you do is to please
God, then that is the right aspect of surrender or
Sarangathi. It cannot be the meaning of surrender to give
the consequences of all the bad that you do to God and take
the consequences of all the good that you do to yourself.

The unity that is present in the
diversity is the aspect of Brahman. To develop faith in this
statement from the bottom of your heart is also an aspect of
surrender. Therefore if you want to understand the meaning
and significance of the word Brahman, you have to put in a
considerable amount of effort and care and you have to
understand and listen to what is being said with much care
and attention. To be able to develop concentration, but the
learning and the type of education that mostly exists in
consumer society is giving to the students habits which are
contrary to these requirements.

(The task of
Swami's devotees is to improve this situation on area of
education with deeds. Never is late to begin.

Swami explains
that , "...Difference between a scientist and a saint is
very deep and is one of essence." However, when most of the
scientists will reach to the path of Advaita, it would be a
real spiritual strengh for true spiritual development of
whole human society. The modern science has done the first
steps).

The world itself is a great teacher, a constant guide and
inspiration. That is the reason why a human being is surrounded
and sustained by the world. Every bird, every animal, every
tree, mountain and star, each tiny worm, gives a lesson if
he/she has the will and the thirst to learn. These make the
world a veritable university for human beings; it is a Gurukul
(sacred commune of preceptor with disciples) where one is a
pupil from birth to death.

The gross body has its characteristics - height, weight,
girth, proportion, name, caste, sect, nationality; it is a pot,
a container, it is devised, designed; it disintegrates; it is
destroyed. It cannot be 'you'. The subtle body is like the water
in the pot; that too is poured by some one. It does not
originate therein; it is no essential part of it; it is not its
Dharma. So it too is not 'you.' The causal body is affected by
attachment and detachment, the world and its objects, through
reaction and reflection. So, it too cannot be 'you'. 'You' are
beyond all three. You are not limited by these three containers
- one within the other, one finer than the other.

There are five sheaths within which the "I" shines. The
Anna-maya Kosha (the material sheath), is the gross body. The
subtle body consists of the next three sheaths, Praana-maya (the
vital sheath), Mano-maya Kosha (the mental sheath) and
Vijnaana-maya (the intellectual sheath). The causal body is the
Anandha-maya Kosha (bliss conscious sheath). Even this is a
limitation, a phase, a characteristic. The "I" has no such
bounds or bondage. The Guru who can make you cognise this "I" is
your own mind. Turn it towards intelligence and Aanandha, you
are in the right path; turn it towards the vital, the material,
you slide down the path of perdition.

Sit calm a few moments; you can yourself judge your
attainments in this line. If you are dually minded, you are half
blind still. If you see only the one, your vision is clearest;
seeing double is a sign of optical disease. See only the one,
the eternal, the true, the divine. Rise up to the divine; don't
bring down Godhead to your human and even animal levels. Do not
worship God as the picture before you, but, worship the picture
before you as God, because God is in everything and can be
grasped through every single symbol. There is nothing wherein He
is not; there is on might or right, apart from Him.

You may have vast scholarship, fame and fortune. But, the bee
can give you a lesson on how to be free from torment. The tree
can teach you forbearance and tolerance. It offers shade to all,
irrespective of age, sex or religion, nationality or economic
status. It helps with fruit and shade even the foe who lays his
axe on its trunk! The dog can teach you lessons in faith,
selfless service and the process of dedication.

Watch the waves rolling one behind the other towards the
shore! You will notice the waves bringing with them bits of
flotsam and jetsam, bottles and twigs, logs and pieces of
wreckage to be deposited on land. There is a constant struggle
evident to maintain a clean face - a laudable Saadhana, which a
human being can well adopt.

On the surface, the sea appears restless, and full of fury.
But, down below, it is established in peace. Again, consider the
quietness of the depths, the Prashaanthi (serenity) that reigns
in the inner regions of its consciousness.

It is instructive
to notice expressions of innumerable forms of Nature and to
obtain the skill to accept many of them as the teacher. (Reet's
brief compilation from: The Divine Discourse Bhagawan Sathya Sai
Baba, "Lessons from the Sea." 26 July 1972, Prashanthi Nilayam).